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April 16, 1982 • Vol. 13, No. 8 • Two Sections 500 OUTSIDE OF D.C./BALTIMORE AREAS
THE GAY NEWSPAPER OF THE NATIONS CAPITAL
'Gay cancer' focus of hearing
by Lou Chibbaro Jr.
At a first-of-its-kind Congressional
hearing held at the Los Angeles Gay and
Lesbian Community Services Center,
federal health officials said an epidemic
of rare and fatal diseases primarily affect-ing
Gay men continues at a rate of one
new case per day and that research into
the cause and-prevention of the ailments
may be hampered by Reagan administra-tion
budget cuts.
The hearing of the House of Repre-sentatives
subcommittee on Health and
the Environment -- was called by Rep.
Henry Waxman (D-Ca), the subcommit-tee's
chairman. The session was held on
April 13.
News of the diseases surfaced last May
when the Federal Centers for Disease
Control (CDC) reported that Gay men
in their 20s and 30s were contracting
Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and
Kaposi's sarcoma, a form of cancer. The
CDC said that in the U.S., Kaposi's sar-coma
has previously affected mostly
elderly men and rarely caused death.
Pneumocystis pneumonia, a parasitic
infection of the lungs, had been known to
affect mainly persons whose immune sys-tems
were weakened by medication for
cancer or for organ transplants.
Although victims of the airrent out-break
appeared outwardly healthy before
being diagnosed with either the Kaposi's
or pneumonia, health officials said they
were later found to have a serious mal-functioning
of their body's immune
system.
Dr. James W. Curran, coordinator for
the CDCs Task Force on Kaposi's Sar-coma
and Opportunistic Infections, told
the hearing the phenomonon appears to
Henry Wmunan
be "the first documented epidemic of
community-acquired immtme dysftmction.
As of the date of the hearing, Curran
said, 300 cases of Kaposi's, pneumocystis
pneumonia, or other "opportunistic
infections" among young adults have
been reported since 1979. (By April 15,
the number reached 307.) He said 119 of
the victims have died.
"Two hundred and ninety of the 300
cases have occurred among men," Cur-ran
told the subcommittee. "Of the 290
men, 242 are homosexual or bisexual, 30
are heterosexual, and 18 are men whose
sexual preference is unknown."
Curran called the distribution of the
illness "highly unusual." He noted that
over 95 percent of the cases were
reported in the U.S., with 52 percent
from New York City alone. He said 22
percent of the cases were reported from
California; with the remaining cases com-ing
from 19 other states and six foreign
countries.
At least one case of pneumocystis
pneumonia has been reported in the
Washington metropolitan area, accord-ing
to the CDC.
Both Curran and an official from the
National Cancer Institute said govern-ment
health specialists have launched a
number of different studies and research
projects into the causes and possible
prevention of the diseases. Both agencies
have special contingency funds to deal
with health problems such as the Kapo-si's
and pneumocystis pneumonia out-breaks,
officials said.
However, Waxman said he is con-cerned
that overall budget cuts initiated
by President Reagan will harm research
efforts.
"I want to be especially blunt about
the political aspects of Kaposi's sar-coma,"
Rep. Waxman said. "This horri-ble
disease afflicts members of one of the
nation's most stigmatized and discrimi-nated
against minorities.
"There is no doubt in my mind,"
Wax-man continued, "that if the same
disease had appeared among American of
Norwegian descent, or among tennis
players, rather than among Gay males,
the responses of both the government
and the medical community would have
been different?'
Waxman noted the outbreak of Legi-onnaire's
Disease several years ago
appeared to receive greater attention and
funding for research and treatment than
Continued on page A-13
Many fooled by April Fool's issue
Tht offices of the Blade may look
messy, but it wasn't the fault of
the Arlington police. _
by Steve Martz
Shortly after 1 p.m. on Friday, April
2, Robert Belanger rushed into The
Washington Blade office.
His face, recalled office manager Ann
Bemis, who greeted him, was fire-engine
"red. Clutched in his hand was a copy of
that morning's edition of the Blade.
"I've just been reading this story," he
blurted out. "Are you all right, Ann?"
"I got -up," said Bemis, "walked
around my desk, put my arms around
him, and said, 'Bob, It's okay; that was
our April Fool's issue.' You could see the
red drain right out of his face."
Belanger, the president of the Walt
Whitman Republican Club, had been
reading the Blade's 16 page April Fool's
section. In it was a spoof story reporting
that Arlington police had raided the
newspaper and the Lambda Rising book-store
because the Gay businesses were
"spreading immorality and pandering to
the public taste." The police, the story
reported, confiscated objectionable clas-sified
ads from the paper and offensive
books from the bookstore.
Belanger was not alone in being fooled
by the article.
"Many hundreds of people have called
or mentioned the story to us," said
Lambda,Rising owner Deacon Maccub-bin,
"and it's still happening, almost two
weeks after the paper came out." Almost
all of those who contacted him believed
the store really had been raided, said
Maccubbin.
The response has been similar at the
Blade office, where employees report
caller reactions ranging from incredulity
20 anger.
"Is it really true," wondered one Les-bian,
who called the day after the paper
was published, "that the dye in tennis
balls causes Lesbianism?" She was disap-pointed
to discover it wasn't.
A Georgetown student called the same
Continued on page 4-14
Metro
officer
accused
of bias
by Steve Martz
In a letter of complaint to Metro
officials, a Washington man has
accused a Metro police officer of
unprofessional conduct for allegedly
referring to two male subway pas-sengers
as "goddamn faggots."
In the April 9 letter to Metro's
Consumer Affairs office, Ward Fleiss-ner,
24, a resident of Capitol Hill, said
he heard Officer Jimmie R Junior Jr.
make that remark and several similar
ones to a group of Metro police offic-ers
on the night of April 6.
Fleissner, who is not Gay himself,
said the comments were made at a
normal conversational volume and
were heard by several other passen-gers.
Officer junior, reached at his home
in Crofton, Md., refused to either
confirm or deny the remarks attrib-uted
to him.
"Maybe I did say it," he told the
Blade. "I don't know. I don't remem-ber."
However, Fleissner's account of the
incident was confirmed independently
by his roommate, Betsy Kulamer, 24,
who was on the red line train with him
and witnessed the incident.
According to the accounts of Fleiss-ner
and Kulamer, the incident occur-red
at the Metro Center station while
the train, the last of the evening, was
stopped for several minutes. They
were seated at the rear of the last car
of the train, which they had boarded
at Dupont Circle. At the Metro Cen-ter
stop, a group of six or more Metro
police officers entered the car and
stood near the couple.
These officers, said Fleissner and
Kulamer, were then joined by Officer
Junior, who walked from the front of
the car. They said Junior, referring to
a male couple sitting at the other end
of the train, said in a mocking voice to
one of the policemen, "I've got a real
pair of sweethearts for you back there.
Just your type."
Junior told the other officers that
one of the men had his hand on the
other man's thigh and then made sev-eral
derogatory remarks about Gays,
said Fleissner and Kulamer. Junior
also made "smooching noises" in the
direction of the two men, they added,
Continued on page 4-14
4 • Pata• • 1
a .4

April 16, 1982 • Vol. 13, No. 8 • Two Sections 500 OUTSIDE OF D.C./BALTIMORE AREAS
THE GAY NEWSPAPER OF THE NATIONS CAPITAL
'Gay cancer' focus of hearing
by Lou Chibbaro Jr.
At a first-of-its-kind Congressional
hearing held at the Los Angeles Gay and
Lesbian Community Services Center,
federal health officials said an epidemic
of rare and fatal diseases primarily affect-ing
Gay men continues at a rate of one
new case per day and that research into
the cause and-prevention of the ailments
may be hampered by Reagan administra-tion
budget cuts.
The hearing of the House of Repre-sentatives
subcommittee on Health and
the Environment -- was called by Rep.
Henry Waxman (D-Ca), the subcommit-tee's
chairman. The session was held on
April 13.
News of the diseases surfaced last May
when the Federal Centers for Disease
Control (CDC) reported that Gay men
in their 20s and 30s were contracting
Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and
Kaposi's sarcoma, a form of cancer. The
CDC said that in the U.S., Kaposi's sar-coma
has previously affected mostly
elderly men and rarely caused death.
Pneumocystis pneumonia, a parasitic
infection of the lungs, had been known to
affect mainly persons whose immune sys-tems
were weakened by medication for
cancer or for organ transplants.
Although victims of the airrent out-break
appeared outwardly healthy before
being diagnosed with either the Kaposi's
or pneumonia, health officials said they
were later found to have a serious mal-functioning
of their body's immune
system.
Dr. James W. Curran, coordinator for
the CDCs Task Force on Kaposi's Sar-coma
and Opportunistic Infections, told
the hearing the phenomonon appears to
Henry Wmunan
be "the first documented epidemic of
community-acquired immtme dysftmction.
As of the date of the hearing, Curran
said, 300 cases of Kaposi's, pneumocystis
pneumonia, or other "opportunistic
infections" among young adults have
been reported since 1979. (By April 15,
the number reached 307.) He said 119 of
the victims have died.
"Two hundred and ninety of the 300
cases have occurred among men," Cur-ran
told the subcommittee. "Of the 290
men, 242 are homosexual or bisexual, 30
are heterosexual, and 18 are men whose
sexual preference is unknown."
Curran called the distribution of the
illness "highly unusual." He noted that
over 95 percent of the cases were
reported in the U.S., with 52 percent
from New York City alone. He said 22
percent of the cases were reported from
California; with the remaining cases com-ing
from 19 other states and six foreign
countries.
At least one case of pneumocystis
pneumonia has been reported in the
Washington metropolitan area, accord-ing
to the CDC.
Both Curran and an official from the
National Cancer Institute said govern-ment
health specialists have launched a
number of different studies and research
projects into the causes and possible
prevention of the diseases. Both agencies
have special contingency funds to deal
with health problems such as the Kapo-si's
and pneumocystis pneumonia out-breaks,
officials said.
However, Waxman said he is con-cerned
that overall budget cuts initiated
by President Reagan will harm research
efforts.
"I want to be especially blunt about
the political aspects of Kaposi's sar-coma,"
Rep. Waxman said. "This horri-ble
disease afflicts members of one of the
nation's most stigmatized and discrimi-nated
against minorities.
"There is no doubt in my mind,"
Wax-man continued, "that if the same
disease had appeared among American of
Norwegian descent, or among tennis
players, rather than among Gay males,
the responses of both the government
and the medical community would have
been different?'
Waxman noted the outbreak of Legi-onnaire's
Disease several years ago
appeared to receive greater attention and
funding for research and treatment than
Continued on page A-13
Many fooled by April Fool's issue
Tht offices of the Blade may look
messy, but it wasn't the fault of
the Arlington police. _
by Steve Martz
Shortly after 1 p.m. on Friday, April
2, Robert Belanger rushed into The
Washington Blade office.
His face, recalled office manager Ann
Bemis, who greeted him, was fire-engine
"red. Clutched in his hand was a copy of
that morning's edition of the Blade.
"I've just been reading this story," he
blurted out. "Are you all right, Ann?"
"I got -up," said Bemis, "walked
around my desk, put my arms around
him, and said, 'Bob, It's okay; that was
our April Fool's issue.' You could see the
red drain right out of his face."
Belanger, the president of the Walt
Whitman Republican Club, had been
reading the Blade's 16 page April Fool's
section. In it was a spoof story reporting
that Arlington police had raided the
newspaper and the Lambda Rising book-store
because the Gay businesses were
"spreading immorality and pandering to
the public taste." The police, the story
reported, confiscated objectionable clas-sified
ads from the paper and offensive
books from the bookstore.
Belanger was not alone in being fooled
by the article.
"Many hundreds of people have called
or mentioned the story to us," said
Lambda,Rising owner Deacon Maccub-bin,
"and it's still happening, almost two
weeks after the paper came out." Almost
all of those who contacted him believed
the store really had been raided, said
Maccubbin.
The response has been similar at the
Blade office, where employees report
caller reactions ranging from incredulity
20 anger.
"Is it really true," wondered one Les-bian,
who called the day after the paper
was published, "that the dye in tennis
balls causes Lesbianism?" She was disap-pointed
to discover it wasn't.
A Georgetown student called the same
Continued on page 4-14
Metro
officer
accused
of bias
by Steve Martz
In a letter of complaint to Metro
officials, a Washington man has
accused a Metro police officer of
unprofessional conduct for allegedly
referring to two male subway pas-sengers
as "goddamn faggots."
In the April 9 letter to Metro's
Consumer Affairs office, Ward Fleiss-ner,
24, a resident of Capitol Hill, said
he heard Officer Jimmie R Junior Jr.
make that remark and several similar
ones to a group of Metro police offic-ers
on the night of April 6.
Fleissner, who is not Gay himself,
said the comments were made at a
normal conversational volume and
were heard by several other passen-gers.
Officer junior, reached at his home
in Crofton, Md., refused to either
confirm or deny the remarks attrib-uted
to him.
"Maybe I did say it," he told the
Blade. "I don't know. I don't remem-ber."
However, Fleissner's account of the
incident was confirmed independently
by his roommate, Betsy Kulamer, 24,
who was on the red line train with him
and witnessed the incident.
According to the accounts of Fleiss-ner
and Kulamer, the incident occur-red
at the Metro Center station while
the train, the last of the evening, was
stopped for several minutes. They
were seated at the rear of the last car
of the train, which they had boarded
at Dupont Circle. At the Metro Cen-ter
stop, a group of six or more Metro
police officers entered the car and
stood near the couple.
These officers, said Fleissner and
Kulamer, were then joined by Officer
Junior, who walked from the front of
the car. They said Junior, referring to
a male couple sitting at the other end
of the train, said in a mocking voice to
one of the policemen, "I've got a real
pair of sweethearts for you back there.
Just your type."
Junior told the other officers that
one of the men had his hand on the
other man's thigh and then made sev-eral
derogatory remarks about Gays,
said Fleissner and Kulamer. Junior
also made "smooching noises" in the
direction of the two men, they added,
Continued on page 4-14
4 • Pata• • 1
a .4